MAN SINGH Vs. KHACHERA AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Plaintiff's appeal arising out of a suit for the cancellation of a decree dated 26-4-1944 passed under Section 175 of the UP Tenancy Act by the S.D.O. Mat and for possession over three agricultural plots Nos. 266, 267 and 268.

(2.) The Plaintiff's case as stated in the plaint was as follows. It was alleged that originally the Defendants were the occupancy tenants of the plots in suit, but subsequently they left the village and their tenancy land was taken possession of by the zamindar who admitted the Plaintiff as the tenant of the said land, that about four years before this suit the Defendants against the wrong entries made by the patwari who had recorded the Plaintiff as only a subtenant of the Defendants, brought a suit under Section 175 of the UP Tenancy Act against the Plaintiff for ejectment from the land in suit, that the suit ended in dismissal, that about the end of the year 1943 one Bikram Singh, the then S.D.O. Mat, was busy in recruiting men to the army that the said S.D.O. was bent upon giving facilities to the intending recruits, that taking advantage of this opportunity, the Defendants brought another suit under Section 175 of the U.P. Tenancy Act for possession over the said land, that the SDO Mat by exercising of undue influence, coercion and threat of dire consequences compelled the Plaintiff to sign a compromise under which the Defendants' suit under Section 165 of the Tenancy Act was decreed and the Defendants were put in possession of the said land. The decree on the basis of the compromise was alleged to have been passed on 26-4-1944. The Plaintiff prayed for setting aside the said compromise decree and for possession of the land in dispute.

(3.) The suit was resisted by the Defendants on the ground that the Plaintiff was a subtenant of the disputed land, that the civil court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and that the compromise was entered into by the parties out of their own free will and consent.